Teahupoo Surprises

FINALLY the Billabong Pro Tahiti kicked-off this morning and threw down a few surprises. Taj Burrow out, Bede Durbidge out. Marco Polo even won a heat as did Nate Yeomans, both keeping the guillotine suspended by a fraction.

The End of the Road awoke before dawn to the noise of a whip cracking across the lagoon. You know that means Teahupoo is barrelling down the line and sure enough the dawn's streaks shone upon an overhead swell which started to show last night and was now properly filling in. Not all time Teahupoo, far from it, but certainly contestable and better barrels than any waves seen on tour this year bar perhaps the first day of J-Bay.

Spectre-like hangs the career-suspending Sword of Damocles over Tahiti with the top 45 getting razored into the slimline 32 before the tour heads to Trestles. If you fail to perform here and end up on the wrong side of the line after the bell, that's it, you're gone.

Thus far Marco Polo and Nate Yeomans, both in severe danger of getting the shove have prolonged their survival. It's going to be interesting and painful to see what pressure does for all these guys on the cusp. Whatever happens the cut is coming and it's just a matter of who will be packing their bags for the final time this year. For some possibly forever.

Jeremy Flores kicked off one of the day's first heats and all the hoo-ha about the Sterling Spencer video seems to have brought about a bit of a change. He's developed a bit of a "I don't give a fuck" attitude which is probably not before time.

In making a point of stating that he deliberately played the hardball in his heat, not giving anything away in search of the win you have to wonder what the hell has he been giving away to his opponents up until this time? It is a competition after all.

Jordy Smith continued his scarily dominant form defeating CJ Hobgood and local hero Manoa Drollet in perhaps the hardest paper heat of the day. All sorts of coos and ahhs went up as he launched a backhand 'judo' aerial which he claimed not to have a name for but "made him look like a frog" which is one way of selling the world your new trick...

"Definitely relieved to get through Round 1 out there," The Smith said. "We haven't been doing too much on the off days. So it was tricky out there, but super excited to get through and start focusing on the next heat.

"I knew that wave wasn't going to be much from the start so I had to do something special. There are actually some really amazing ramps out there if you can find them. It's just the landings that are challenging. Fortunately for me on that last one, I was able to land almost on the back of the wave and then bring it down."

Drollet then went on to defeat Taj Burrow in the second round highlighting just how much the locals rule this here peak. Watching Taj's warm-up in round one I was struck by how little he stretched out before his heat, imagining most of the top guys to be a bit like rubber-men before they paddled out Taj did a couple of stretches and that was it, ready to roll.

"I started out doing turns but I don't think that was a good strategy," Drollet said. "Taj (Burrow) is so good at doing turns, so I tried to focus on barrels. Fortunately, the right ones came through and I was the winner. To do well here would be a very special thing for me."

Everyone was watching Kelly Slater vs Andy Irons, even if it's not quite a world title bout this time around. You would expect Slater on current form to win and he just did but only by a fraction.

"I actually blew it out there a couple times," He said. "I let Heiarii (Williams) get underneath me on the really good wave, but if I ended up hassling him, Andy (Irons) could have got it. It's unfortunate when there are not a lot of waves, and I was trying to play cat and mouse with those guys for most of the heat. Heiarii paddled me deep on every set, he got me on one, and then I was too deep on another and Andy got it. It was tough."